Vaz Victorious At Huntingdon

The good recent form of the stable continued yesterday as Vazaro Delafayette ran out a comfortable winner of the novices' chase at Huntingdon.  He wasn't convincing with his jumping early on but Tom Scudamore gave him plenty of time to get into his rhythm and stuck to the inner the whole way.  He picked up in good style in the end to win by eleven lengths and it is not difficult to imagine him being turned out again shortly to try to defy a penalty before the handicapper has his say.

Today there are four meetings taking place with jumps action from Exeter and Warwick as well as all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  The wooden spoon unsurprisingly goes to the flat tracks who put up a combined £65,000 in prize money for the twelve races across the two fixtures...nowhere near good enough in my opinion.  The stable has a runner at each of the jump meetings - Baraka de Thaix contests the 5.00pm race at Exeter.  He finished fourth at Ludlow on heavy ground last time out and he looks as though this step up in trip could bring about some improvement.  Meanwhile Poole Master runs at Warwick and conditional jockey David Noonan takes a valuable 5lbs off his back, reducing his weight to 11-5.  He needs to bounce back to form but is feasibly weighted if returning to his best.

Championship leader Richard Johnson drew a blank yesterday but looks as though he could reach his maiden double century as both Cheat The Cheater and Little Miss Poet look like the proverbial good things.

It is Cheltenham Preview time of the season again and David is appearing on the panel at Exeter racecourse tonight alongside Paul Nicholls and others.  It takes place after racing this evening and should be an informative evening.  If you are interested in attending it is a ticket only function so do get hold of the racecourse and see if they can help you out.

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It was an excellent night in Europe for the English football teams.  Manchester United beat Midtjylland 5-1 and the big question is how on earth did they lose in Denmark with the Danes looking like an average second division team.  Liverpool beat Augsburg 1-0, while Spurs produced probably the best result of the evening with a 3-0 victory over Fiorentina.

I see that both Sepp Blatter and Platini had their bans reduced by a whopping two years apiece.  How did that happen?  I would have gone the other way and increased them by ten years...they should never be involved in any football related activities again as far as I am concerned.

It looks as though Andy Murray is going to play in the Davis Cup against Japan next week so it is going to be Murray versus Japan and I would be shocked if Murray didn't win.

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Why did ET have such big eyes?  Because he saw his phone bill!  Keep smiling...